The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

In order to take a charge, Bogut has to establish position — think of him turning himself into a column that “owns” the vertical space from the floor to the ceiling. In order to commit a charge, the offensive player must head-on violate that space that the defensive player has now claimed as his own. Think of it as the offensive player must knock over the column that the defensive player has just created. The offensive player must start in front of the defender and wind up in the same spot where the defender once was.

In this case, Kobe was going at an angle, striking a glancing blow against the “column” that Bogut had created, but not “knocking it over”. Kobe wound up beside the space Bogut had claimed, not behind it. This meant that Bogut (who had initiated the contact by establishing position on the floor and preventing Kobe from continuing his drive across the lane) had fouled Kobe.

I’m not sure about the claim of a travel beforehand, but the rules were clearly redefined this year to give players two steps and a jump rather than the previously wishy-washy (and physically impossible) 1 1/2 steps and jump. Kobe can go 7-8 feet without traveling.

For all the complaining about the officials, the bottom line is that the Bucks had 3 free throws that would have won or at the very least forced a second overtime. They missed all three.

This was an example of two teams being evenly matched, but one team having better players than the other.

As long as I’ve been a basketball fan, people around me have always claimed the refs were against “my” team. High school? The refs were against us because our team was mostly black and the other teams in our conference were all suburban white. University of Illinois? The refs were against us because Bobby Knight had them all scared of him. DePaul? The refs … I don’t even know why. The Bulls? Okay, nobody complained about the officiating when they were winning every game by 20 per night. The Bucks … small market paranoia. Every fan base thinks the officials are out to get them. It’s a problem endemic to basketball because of the speed of the game and the ambivalent definition of so many of the calls. Replay wouldn’t help block/charge calls because the explanation would have to be accompanied by dictionary definitions and telestrator analysis that still wouldn’t make half of the viewers happy.

It was a great game. The Bucks’ execution wasn’t as good as it needed to be. There may have been a free throw imbalance, but if the Bucks had made 87% of theirs like the Lakers did, the outcome would have been different. Too many long jumpers early in the shot clock. Redd shot 2-8 on three pointers. Jennings took one that apparently got him benched. You can’t expect Kobe Bryant to miss two game winning shots from the same spot in the floor when he’s being guarded by a guy who is 6’3″. I would have rather seen Mbah a Moute on him late, although Bell did do everything he could against him. You can say that if a team blows a 6 point lead in overtime then something is wrong, but remember in the Bucks’ last game against Portland, the Blazers did the exact same thing … twice.

Do the officials favor, or at least “respect” star players more than others? Yes, I don’t think there’s much doubt about that. But there is a chicken vs. egg argument about that. The best players are the best players, so they create more situations where the benefit of the doubt goes their way. That’s why I like the future of Brandon Jennings — once he starts getting some calls then he might become Iverson-esque unstoppable. That’s why Redd not being 100% makes his value pretty low, because he isn’t driving and drawing fouls like he used to. But the game isn’t fixed.

As I left the game last night, my friend said to me, “You know, after a loss like that, it almost feels worse than a blowout.” Then he thought for a minute and said, “I guess it could have been 110-80. That would have been a lot worse.”

Great game. I can’t wait to go back.